Join us for this installment of our popular Chat & Chowder series, featuring Stephanie Baker, senior writer at Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Business Week, to discuss her book Punishing Putin: Inside The Global Economic War To Bring Down Russia.

Chat & Chowder programs are an excellent opportunity to engage with expert speakers and to network with other globally-oriented participants in an informal environment. Each event features a presentation, audience Q&A, dedicated time for networking, and (of course!) a selection of chowders and beverages.

Thanks to the generous support of The Lowell Institute, Chat & Chowder is now free of charge for all participants (Zoom live-streams remain free as well). We sincerely appreciate The Lowell Institute’s commitment to our mission, as well as the support of our venue, Foley & Lardner LLP.

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This program will be streamed to Zoom from 6:15 to 7:15. To attend the program virtually, please register for the Zoom webinar here.

Advance registration is required. We cannot accommodate walk-ins for the in-person program.

Stephanie Baker is a senior writer at Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Business Week on the projects and investigations team. She writes about business, politics and science delving into everything from Russian oligarchs and sanctions to Donald Trump’s finances, art market fraud and Covid-19 vaccines . A dual US-UK citizen, Stephanie has reported from Russia, Ukraine, Indonesia, Egypt, Jordan and throughout the European Union.

She has appeared as a commentator on politics and business on the BBC, ITV, PBS Newshour, National Public Radio, Times Radio and is a regular guest on BBC Dateline, a weekly half hour news show featuring foreign correspondents based in London. She is a regular contributor to Bloomberg Television and Radio. She shared a Gerald Loeb award for explanatory journalism for a series on antibiotic resistance.

In 2023, she shared a Whitman Bassow citation from the Overseas Press Club and the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) award for a series on plastics pollution. In 2020, she was shortlisted for Science Journalist of the Year by the U.K. Society of Editors. She’s won awards from the U.K. Foreign Press Association and the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. Her work appeared in Columbia University Press’ Best Business Writing anthology in 2015.

Before joining Bloomberg, she worked as a reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague and The Moscow Times in Moscow. She holds an undergraduate degree from Oberlin College and an MSc from the London School of Economics in comparative politics focusing on Eastern Europe and Russia. She lives in London.

An in-depth, authoritative, and timely look at the unprecedented economic war the US and its European allies are waging against Russia after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine—written by a veteran journalist with unparalleled access to Western and Russian sources.

An in-depth, authoritative, and timely look at the unprecedented economic war the US and its European allies are waging against Russia after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine—written by a veteran journalist with unparalleled access to Western and Russian sources.

Undeterred by eight years of timid US sanctions, Vladimir Putin ordered his full-scale assault on Ukraine on February 24, 2022. In the hours that followed across the world, Western leaders weaponized economic tools to counter an unprecedented land grab by a nuclear-armed power. What followed was an undeniably world-changing financial experiment that risked throwing the world into a devastating recession. The end goal was simple: to sap the strength of Putin’s war machine and damage the Russian economy—once the eleventh largest on the planet. Here, Russian expert and veteran journalist Stephanie Baker explains in fascinating detail how this furious shadow-war unfolded: its causes, how it is being executed, and its ability to affect Russia and the course of history.

From seizing superyachts to manipulating the global price of oil to trying to block the sale of military technology to Russia, we learn how the White House coordinated with top officials in London and Brussels to freeze a staggering $300 billion in foreign currency reserves accumulated in the West by Russia’s central bank. Mobilizing an army of white collar-crime investigators and experts on international law, Baker explores how the West has cracked down on illicit Russian money by targeting oligarchs, one superyacht at a time, and their enablers around the world.

Filled with propulsive, fly-on-the-wall details, Punishing Putin takes us into the frantic backroom deliberations that led to a whole new era of carefully calculated “economic statecraft” and shows how these new strategies are already radically rearranging global alliances that will influence the world order today, and for generations to come.

WorldBoston’s Chat & Chowder series features key authors on international affairs in an engaging setting. In addition to discussion of a featured book (usually sold at a significant discount), the program offers the opportunity for discussion among members and guests – and of course a selection of chowders and beverages. This Chat & Chowder will be hosted in-person (from 6:00 to 7:30PM ET) and live-streamed to Zoom (from 6:15 to 7:15 PM ET only).